I NTRODUCTION

This paper addresses two research questions that are of high relevance for biology education. The first addresses whether performing hands-on activities can influence students‟ interest, while the second focuses on the relationship between the valence of

3 Dieses Kapitel entspricht: Holstermann, N., Grube, D. & Bögeholz, S. (resubmitted 08.07.2009). Hands-on activities and their influence Hands-on students’ interest. Manuscript resubmitted for publicatiHands-on.

experience in hands-on activities and the reported interest. In general, conducting hands-on activities in biology classes is widely recommended by educational authorities (e.g. KMK, 2005). However, Hofstein and Lunetta (2003) claimed that there is still a failure in science education to examine the effects of various school science experiences on students‟ attitudes. This would be important for science education since experiences that promote positive attitudes could have very beneficial effects on students‟ interests (ibid.). This paper aims to contribute to this issue by comparing the effects of various hands-on activities on students‟ interest. However, what do we know about interest and in particular the influence of hands-on activities on students‟ interest?

Interest is often defined as a content-specific person-object relationship that emerges from an individual‟s interaction with the environment (Krapp, 2005; Schiefele, 1991).

Interest is an important variable in the school context, as it can influence students‟ levels of learning, their academic performance and the quality of their learning experience (cf.

Hidi & Renninger, 2006; Schiefele, 1991; Schiefele, Krapp & Schreyer, 1993).

Unfortunately, students‟ interest in biology tends to decrease from primary to secondary school (e.g. Löwe, 1992). Therefore, it is important to identify activities and topics that can catch or hold students‟ interest in biology. Practical work, so-called hands-on experience, is one situational factor that is often assumed to catch students‟ interest and to motivate them to learn science (Bergin, 1999).

Hands-on in general means learning by experience. Students handle scientific instruments and manipulate the objects they are studying (Rutherford, 1993). Often, it is assumed that working in a hands-on way provides a more realistic and exciting experience of the contents (Franklin & Peat, 2005; Nott & Wellington. 1996). Most empirical studies provide evidence for the assumption that conducting hands-on activities leads to positive motivational outcomes. For instance, Middleton (1995) asked teachers and students to distinguish what they believe makes mathematics classes motivating. Both groups referred, besides other factors, to hands-on aspects as facilitating motivation. Similar results have been found for biology classes (Vogt, Upmeier zu Belzen, Schröer & Hoek, 1999). Vogt and colleagues (1999) investigated how interesting specific phases of the biology lesson were perceived to be by students.

Phases that contained practical work, for instance conducting experiments or working

with microscopes, were rated as highly positive. Similarly, Renner, Abraham and Birnie (1985) interviewed students about their feelings regarding learning activities like laboratory work. They identified laboratory work as being „interesting‟ as compared to other more „boring‟ formats. In another study, students from schools with a high level of science equipment usage were compared to those from schools with low science equipment usage (Ato & Wilkinson, 1986). The former group showed higher leisure interest in science as well as more positive attitudes towards scientific inquiry and towards scientists. However, Ato and Wilkinson (1986) found no differences between the two groups regarding their enjoyment of science and science lessons, their attitudes towards science practical work and their career interest in science. Thompson and Soyibo (2002) presented students with two different conditions within their chemistry classes. The experimental group was taught electrolysis for nine lessons by a mixture of lecture, teacher demonstration, class discussion and practical work in small groups. In the control group, the practical work was substituted by teacher demonstrations. After the treatment, the experimental group showed more positive attitudes towards chemistry than the control group.

Since most of these studies indicated that practical work is beneficial for students‟

motivation, we hypothesised that in general, students with experience in hands-on activities will show higher interest in these activities than students without experience.

However, most of the previous studies focused on practical work in general and did not look for differences between specific hands-on activities. This constitutes a shortcoming in the research, since there is a large amount of diversity in hands-on activities, and practices vary, for instance in terms of time, level of challenge and opportunities for inquiry-based learning (e.g. Gardner & Gauld, 1990). Therefore, we specifically looked at individual hands-on activities in order to detect possible differences between them. A particular focus was placed on four categories of hands-on activities that are typically conducted in biology lessons, namely experimenting, conducting dissections, working with microscopes and classifying creatures.

Our second research question focused on the relationship between emotional valence of hands-on activities and interest. For instance, Gardner and Gauld (1990) argue that doing practical work does not, in itself, foster scientific attitudes. Rather, the quality of

students‟ experiences during practical work is decisive (ibid.). The emotional valence of an experience is often assumed to be an important factor for the development of students‟ intrinsic motivation (Bergin, 1999; Krapp, 2005). Interest seems to be strengthened when a person experiences an activity or a learning process as emotionally positive, for instance as enjoyable and stimulating. On the other hand, repeated negative experience might also influence individual interests (Schiefele, 1991; Todt, 1995). For instance, Pekrun and colleagues (2002, S. 97) assume that negative emotions are detrimental to students‟ intrinsic motivation, as they “tend to be incompatible with enjoyment as implied by interest and intrinsic motivation”. Underlining this assumption, they found negative correlations between negative emotions (e.g. hopelessness) and study interest, while positive emotions like enjoyment correlated positively with students‟ interest and intrinsic motivation (ibid.). In line with these empirical findings and the theoretical assumptions, we expected interest to be higher the more positively a hands-on activity was perceived by students. Again, we specifically looked at individual hands-on activities of the four categories in order to detect possible differences between them.